I love Craig's List

MotionMan

Lifer
Jan 11, 2006
17,124
12
81
I actually do like CL a lot. I use it to buy and sell things often and have not yet gotten screwed. Of course, you always have to be careful, though.

My wife has been wanting a new mobile phone for a little while and dropped her's over the weekend. Her sister, our brother-in-law and I all have iPhones, so I decided to try to get her one cheap (We are all already on AT&T).

I went to CL and found a listing I liked.

I sent the guy an e-mail yesterday and this morning I received the following (from a gmail account):

Hey...

Sorry, but i had a guy who wanted the phone and he just stopped by and paid for it. I really wanted to get rid of it because i am strapped for cash and need a quick 100 bucks. I actually got the phone online for free anyways, so i didnt care about the price. Just had no use for it. All i did was put my name and address into this site and it was delivered in 2 weeks or so to me. It was part of some market research thing or whatever. I dont know, I think they are still running running it if you wanna check it out, here is the place i went <removed> Its worth a try.
Anyways, thanks for the reply, sorry it went so fast.
I could almost see the Black Man avatar...

So, anyone have a cheap iPhone for sale ;)

MotionMan

removed the link from the email so as not to help them out in the google searching. -DrPizza
 
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MotionMan

Lifer
Jan 11, 2006
17,124
12
81
I just got the following reply regarding another CL iPhone listing:

Sorry the iphone isn't available anymore. But since I sold mine already I guess I can tell you where I got it for free. It looks like it still works. Tippingtech's doing a promo and giving people iphones.

www.tippingtech.com/promo/iphone

I'd appreiciate it if you sent me a little something back when you get it! :)

Awesome.

MotionMan
 

BHeemsoth

Platinum Member
Jul 30, 2002
2,738
0
76
Back in the day I actually got an ipod from freeipods.com. It was a terribly lengthy process, but it worked out in the end.

Granted this was back in 2004. I'm not sure how those sites work now.
 

fantolay

Golden Member
Dec 6, 2009
1,061
0
0
Yah, apparently, if you are able to get however many people they want you to get to sign up, and EVERY ONE of those people does SOMETHING, then 3 months later you WILL get a free ipod.

After you send invited to like 8 other people or whatever (amount depends on item), and then you complete like 4 offers, it will work. The offers are things like signing up for Blockbuster Online for a month (and you have to give them credit card, and then you need to remember to quit the subscription at the end of hte month) and similar things with less reputable companies than Blockbuster.

I actually tried to do it 2 times, once for an ipod and once for an xbox 360, and I would do my part but I couldn't for the life of me get others to sign up.

It doesn't even seem like these craigslist people are trying to get referals for themselves because it isn't a referral link... so I don't really know what their deal is. But it must be super annoying trying to buy a fucking iphone and dealing with all that. Go on Ebay.
 

thepd7

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2005
9,423
0
0
I only call people and only put my phone number now, craiglist has too many spammers and scammers. It's worked very well for me so far.
 

arrfep

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2006
2,314
16
81
I actually do like CL a lot. I use it to buy and sell things often and have not yet gotten screwed. Of course, you always have to be careful, though.

My wife has been wanting a new mobile phone for a little while and dropped her's over the weekend. Her sister, our brother-in-law and I all have iPhones, so I decided to try to get her one cheap (We are all already on AT&T).

I went to CL and found this: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/mob/1534250367.html

I sent the guy an e-mail yesterday and this morning I received the following (from a gmail account):



I could almost see the Black Man avatar...

So, anyone have a cheap iPhone for sale ;)

MotionMan

Wait, so how do we know your post isn't a thinly-veiled attempt at spamming that site... Hmmm.....
 

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
11
0
I gave up on eBay a long time ago.

At least with CL, you get to meet the person and check out the goods before handing over your cash.

MotionMan
The only problem is people will try to use you for tech support if the shit you sell them don't work in their configuration even though it worked 100% when they bought it from you.
 

maisy25

Junior Member
Jan 17, 2010
1
0
0
I tried to inquire about an iphone on CL and got the same response. Do you think this tippingtech promo is legit or spam?
 

MotionMan

Lifer
Jan 11, 2006
17,124
12
81
More CL fun:

I see a listing for an iPhone 3g for $280.

I send the following e-mail:

I'll take it and I can meet you tonight with cash in hand.

Name the place and time (after 6:30 p.m.)

A couple hours later the e-mail exchange goes like this:

Yes, it is still for sale.
However, the price has changed due to popular demand.
The new price is $320.
If you are interested, please call or text me at xxx.xxx.xxxx.

This is not eBay. If you wanted $320, then you should have listed it for $320 (like you just changed it to).

That sucks.

Sorry man.

I got a ton of people that replied to the add.
I figured I can get a couple of bucks more. Wouldn't you do the same thing?

No.

I buy and sell on CL a lot. I do my research and pick a reasonable price that is usually just below the market value so I get a lot of interest. I then sell it to the first person who responds, will pay my price and can set a meet near my place on that day.

If I want to set a low price to get a lot of interest and increase the price based on demand, I post it on eBay for a penny.

What you did was not cool at all.

Alright,
If you can pick it up tonight - I'll meet you half way between the adjusted/original price.
You can have it for 300.
I'll be in the xxxxx area all day/night.
My number is xxx.xxx.xxxx and my name is Al.
Give me a call/text an hour before.
Let me know if this works for you..
Thanks.

There are a TON of iPhone 3g's available on CL for $300 being offered by people I can assume are actually willing to sell at the list price the first time around.

So, no thanks.

Alright,
I hope your journey is a successful one.
No hard feelings on this side.
Be safe. Peace to the world.

Thank you.

That's CL for you.

MotionMan
 

El Guaraguao

Diamond Member
May 7, 2008
3,468
6
81
The one and ONLY time I used CG to buy something was purchasing a laptop with extras for DIRT cheap.

A little more than a year ago, I bought a *BRAND new* gateway FX laptop (p7805u - retail price at the time about, $1400) WITH a microsoft X5 KB\mouse (retail $140, for both) and a gaming headphone\mic ($30), it came with Fallout 3 and Spore collector edition for...get rdy....$750.

I sold fallout3 and collectors edition, because i already played\beat those games before I got the laptop...so I think i got $70 for selling those games.

That was definitely the deal of the century.
 

BUTCH1

Lifer
Jul 15, 2000
20,433
1,769
126
I bought a used Weber gas grill on CL for $100, these list for $350-400 new, this one was only a few years old in perfect condition. Guy who owned it just wanted to buy one with a side burner for his wife.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
167
111
www.slatebrookfarm.com
The one and ONLY time I used CG to buy something was purchasing a laptop with extras for DIRT cheap.

A little more than a year ago, I bought a *BRAND new* gateway FX laptop (p7805u - retail price at the time about, $1400) WITH a microsoft X5 KB\mouse (retail $140, for both) and a gaming headphone\mic ($30), it came with Fallout 3 and Spore collector edition for...get rdy....$750.

I sold fallout3 and collectors edition, because i already played\beat those games before I got the laptop...so I think i got $70 for selling those games.

That was definitely the deal of the century.

So far for me, deal of the century was a Thinkpad, NIB at a city auction for $110. It was in a relatively plain type of box, rather than a retail box like you'd see on the floor at Walmart. No one there (besides me) had a clue what it was. I kick myself to this day for not buying the other one.